Too Much of a Good Thing
by SkitsMix
Summary: [G1] Writing meme oneshot! Characters: Silverbolt, Prowl. Phrase: He did WHAT? !


**A/N:** Writing meme! The one where someone gives you a couple of characters and a phrase, and you write a little scene involving those characters and said phrase. Second one, kgo! As always, comments, reviews and crits are very welcome. Feedback is tasty. :D

Characters: Silverbolt and Prowl  
Phrase: "He did WHAT?!"

Silverbolt halted before the door of Prowl's office, taking a moment to organise his thoughts and steel himself for what was to come. It didn't promise to be exactly pleasant. The Aerialbot commander took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then with no further excuse for procrastination, raised his hand and knocked on the door.

A moment later the door hissed open and revealed Prowl sitting behind his typically neat and organised desk, a datapad in one hand. The black and white mech glanced up from the datapad, then gestured for Silverbolt to enter. "Ah, Silverbolt, come in please. What can I do for you?" he asked, politely putting the datapad to one side and focusing his attention on the Concorde mech.

Silverbolt stepped into the office and stood before Prowl's desk, his bearing formal. "I would like to request to have Fireflight, Skydive and Slingshot removed from the duty roster for today, due to some rather... misguided actions of Air Raid's last night."

Prowl narrowed his optics slightly. "Why, what did Air Raid do?"

After a moment's hesitation to figure out how to be as concise as possible, Silverbolt told him.

Prowl froze, his expression almost comically blank as he attempted to process what the Aerialbot commander had just said. Silverbolt tried not to fidget in the face of the lengthening silence, keeping his own expression professionally neutral as he waited for some reaction from Prowl. He didn't have to wait too long, however.

"He did WHAT?!" Prowl finally yelped with uncharacteristically incredulous shock, his doorwings flaring. Silverbolt barely managed to keep from jumping in surprise, then eyed Prowl warily. The black and white mech just raised one hand to cover his optics as he leaned back in his chair and tried to regain his composure. "... My apologies, Silverbolt," he said after a moment, straightening up again and folding his hands together on the desk. "Let me see if I've got this straight - Air Raid managed to get hold of, via questionably dubious means, some of Wheeljack's high-grade energon, then proceeded to talk the rest of your team into a... drinking game. This resulted in you discovering your entire team in various states of inebriation late last night - I'm assuming after the meeting with Optimus, myself and the other command elements had concluded."

Silverbolt nodded, still doing his best to keep his expression calm and neutral, despite the fact that he would have liked nothing more than to sink into the floor out of sheer embarrassment. "That's correct."

Prowl sighed faintly. Rescheduling the day's duty roster was more than likely going to prove to be a pain in the aft, and he had to resist the urge to rub at his temples. He'd already had one highly unprofessional outburst today, and he refused to let his professionalism break again so soon. "Elaborate."

Silverbolt paused for a moment, mentally debating exactly how much detail to go into. He was pretty sure Slingshot would never forgive him if he revealed how he'd discovered the white Harrier mech out cold, half-transformed and somehow wedged into the doorway of his own room. Nor would Skydive appreciate it becoming known that he'd been found unconscious under a table with his face and wings decorated with Sharpie scribbles, and Silverbolt didn't even want to know how Fireflight had managed to get into one of their common room's air ducts before also passing out. Only Air Raid had escaped a completely undignified discovery, having collapsed stomach-down on their couch.

The Aerialbot commander quickly decided discretion was the better part of valour. "They'd all passed out by the time I returned to our common room, and going from all the empty containers around, it was pretty obvious that the cause had been simple over-energising. I managed to get them all into their own quarters for the rest of the night." He glossed over the fact that, while Air Raid and Skydive had been easy enough to get to their own rooms, it had taken Silverbolt almost half an hour to pry a completely unresponsive Fireflight out of the air duct he'd curled up in, and even longer to get Slingshot back into bot mode and unstuck from the doorway. In the end, percussive adjustment had been involved. "I didn't get any details of where they'd gotten the high-grade from or what exactly they'd been up to until about half an hour ago, when I woke them up for duty." Or attempted to, anyway.

Prowl just nodded, frowning faintly. "I notice you didn't include Air Raid's name when you asked for the others to be excused from duty today," he observed. "How are they all faring this morning?"

Silverbolt couldn't fully suppress a little grimace. "Fireflight's still comatose, and as far as I can tell, hasn't moved at all since I got him back to his quarters. Skydive's functional, but he's got a massive headache and a strong aversion to bright lights and loud noises at the moment. Slingshot... probably isn't any better off - he's locked himself in his quarters, and all we can get from him over our comm is obscenities, when he bothers replying at all. Air Raid..." Here, Silverbolt really did scowl. "He's lucky enough to be, to all intents and purposes, suffering no ill effects whatsoever, which is why I didn't ask for him to be excused from duty. He's as energetic and irrepressible as ever. I've already taken him to task for his foolishness, and I'm willing to take full responsibility for his actions."

"That won't be necessary, Silverbolt," Prowl assured him, mind working quickly as he mentally reviewed the day's roster. "If Fireflight hasn't shown any signs of waking up by early afternoon, get Ratchet to have a look at him. Let Skydive and Slingshot know they've got today off, and send Air Raid to me."

"Yes, sir," Silverbolt replied, then frowned slightly. "I know Air Raid and Skydive were scheduled for an aerial patrol this afternoon, but I'm not comfortable with the idea of 'Raid covering it by himself..."

Prowl made a reassuring little gesture with one hand - he was, by now, well familiar with Silverbolt's reluctance to send any of his team out solo. "Not to worry, Silverbolt. I'll get the ground crews to cover the route for today, your boys can make up for it tomorrow. In the meantime, I have other things in mind for Air Raid... pending your permission, of course."

The Aerialbot commander gave Prowl a grim little smile. "As long as it doesn't involve sending him out by himself, you have my full permission - blessings even - to do whatever you like with him for the next -week-. If nothing else, it will hopefully keep him out of trouble, and reduce the likelihood of any of the others retaliating in some way."

The black and white mech smiled faintly, resting his elbows on his desk and steepling his fingers together. "Excellent. I'll keep you informed, Silverbolt. Dismissed."

Silverbolt snapped off a salute, then turned and strode briskly out of Prowl's office, heading for the Aerialbot's common room. Prowl watched him go, then as his office door hissed shut again he relaxed back in his seat and retrieved his datapad from the desk. He took a moment to mentally run over the day's roster again, then went about informing those involved of the changes as he waited for Air Raid to show up. There was plenty of work to be done, and Prowl fully intended for Air Raid to be doing a whole -lot- of it.


End file.
